Due to the efforts of many, the ACLU and other civil rights organizations, Boston Mayor Kim Janey has put on hold an effort to hire a company to network more than 1,000 cameras in Boston and eight other Greater Boston municipalities. This network would include Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, and Winthrop.
It would have required that “any user of the system from any participating jurisdiction must have access to and control of any camera in the system subject by the rights and rules defined by the system administrators.” Having a semi-private surveillance network is bad enough. With the recent Boston police overtime scandals and far too many cases of unauthorized surveillance by police officers, such a system will be abused further.
This proposal is on hold. But it isn’t dead and we need to kill this proposal.
If you live in one of the affected communities, now is the time to contact Mayor Janey and the Boston City Council and tell them to withdraw it completely. The ACLU has a tool you can use to email them. You can also call Mayor Janey at 617-635-4500. You can also find your city councilor and call them at 617-635-3040.
If you are in one of the affected communities, now would also be a good time to call your local government and tell them to oppose this effort.
Make the call. We will stop this proposal with everyone’s help.
Due to the efforts of many, the ACLU and other civil rights organizations, Boston Mayor Kim Janey has put on hold an effort to hire a company to network more than 1,000 cameras in Boston and eight other Greater Boston municipalities. This network would include Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, and Winthrop.
It would have required that “any user of the system from any participating jurisdiction must have access to and control of any camera in the system subject by the rights and rules defined by the system administrators.” Having a semi-private surveillance network is bad enough. With the recent Boston police overtime scandals and far too many cases of unauthorized surveillance by police officers, such a system will be abused further.
This proposal is on hold. But it isn’t dead and we need to kill this proposal.
If you live in one of the affected communities, now is the time to contact Mayor Janey and the Boston City Council and tell them to withdraw it completely. The ACLU has a tool you can use to email them. You can also call Mayor Janey at 617-635-4500. You can also find your city councilor and call them at 617-635-3040.
If you are in one of the affected communities, now would also be a good time to call your local government and tell them to oppose this effort.
Make the call. We will stop this proposal with everyone’s help.